javax.mail.internet
Class MimeMessage

This class represents a MIME style email message. It implements
the Message abstract class and the MimePart
interface.

Clients wanting to create new MIME style messages will instantiate
an empty MimeMessage object and then fill it with appropriate
attributes and content.

Service providers that implement MIME compliant backend stores may
want to subclass MimeMessage and override certain methods to provide
specific implementations. The simplest case is probably a provider
that generates a MIME style input stream and leaves the parsing of
the stream to this class.

MimeMessage uses the InternetHeaders class to parse and
store the top level RFC 822 headers of a message.

The mail.mime.address.strict session property controls
the parsing of address headers. By default, strict parsing of address
headers is done. If this property is set to "false",
strict parsing is not done and many illegal addresses that sometimes
occur in real messages are allowed. See the InternetAddress
class for details.

A note on RFC 822 and MIME headers

RFC 822 header fields must contain only
US-ASCII characters. MIME allows non ASCII characters to be present
in certain portions of certain headers, by encoding those characters.
RFC 2047 specifies the rules for doing this. The MimeUtility
class provided in this package can be used to to achieve this.
Callers of the setHeader, addHeader, and
addHeaderLine methods are responsible for enforcing
the MIME requirements for the specified headers. In addition, these
header fields must be folded (wrapped) before being sent if they
exceed the line length limitation for the transport (1000 bytes for
SMTP). Received headers may have been folded. The application is
responsible for folding and unfolding headers as appropriate.

contentStream
If the data for this message was supplied by an
InputStream that implements the SharedInputStream interface,
contentStream is another such stream representing
the content of this message.

setText(java.lang.String text)
Convenience method that sets the given String as this
part's content, with a MIME type of "text/plain".

void

setText(java.lang.String text,
java.lang.String charset)
Convenience method that sets the given String as this part's
content, with a MIME type of "text/plain" and the specified
charset.

void

setText(java.lang.String text,
java.lang.String charset,
java.lang.String subtype)
Convenience method that sets the given String as this part's
content, with a primary MIME type of "text" and the specified
MIME subtype.

protected void

updateHeaders()
Called by the saveChanges method to actually
update the MIME headers.

dh

content

protected byte[] content

Byte array that holds the bytes of this Message's content.

contentStream

protected java.io.InputStream contentStream

If the data for this message was supplied by an
InputStream that implements the SharedInputStream interface,
contentStream is another such stream representing
the content of this message. In this case, content
will be null.

Since:

JavaMail 1.2

headers

flags

modified

protected boolean modified

A flag indicating whether the message has been modified.
If the message has not been modified, any data in the
content array is assumed to be valid and is used
directly in the writeTo method. This flag is
set to true when an empty message is created or when the
saveChanges method is called.

Since:

JavaMail 1.2

saved

protected boolean saved

Does the saveChanges method need to be called on
this message? This flag is set to false by the public constructor
and set to true by the saveChanges method. The
writeTo method checks this flag and calls the
saveChanges method as necessary. This avoids the
common mistake of forgetting to call the saveChanges
method on a newly constructed message.

MimeMessage

Constructs a MimeMessage by reading and parsing the data from the
specified MIME InputStream. The InputStream will be left positioned
at the end of the data for the message. Note that the input stream
parse is done within this constructor itself.

The input stream contains an entire MIME formatted message with
headers and data.

MimeMessage

Constructs a MimeMessage by reading and parsing the data from the
specified MIME InputStream. The InputStream will be left positioned
at the end of the data for the message. Note that the input stream
parse is done within this constructor itself.

getReplyTo

Return the value of the RFC 822 "Reply-To" header field. If
this header is unavailable or its value is absent, then
the getFrom method is called and its value is returned.
This implementation uses the getHeader method
to obtain the requisite header field.

setSubject

Set the "Subject" header field. If the subject contains
non US-ASCII characters, it will be encoded using the
platform's default charset. If the subject contains only
US-ASCII characters, no encoding is done and it is used
as-is. If the subject is null, the existing "Subject" field
is removed.

The application must ensure that the subject does not contain
any line breaks.

Note that if the charset encoding process fails, a
MessagingException is thrown, and an UnsupportedEncodingException
is included in the chain of nested exceptions within the
MessagingException.

setSubject

Set the "Subject" header field. If the subject contains non
US-ASCII characters, it will be encoded using the specified
charset. If the subject contains only US-ASCII characters, no
encoding is done and it is used as-is. If the subject is null,
the existing "Subject" header field is removed.

The application must ensure that the subject does not contain
any line breaks.

Note that if the charset encoding process fails, a
MessagingException is thrown, and an UnsupportedEncodingException
is included in the chain of nested exceptions within the
MessagingException.

Parameters:

subject - The subject

charset - The charset

Throws:

IllegalWriteException - if the underlying
implementation does not support modification
of existing values

IllegalStateException - if this message is
obtained from a READ_ONLY folder.

MessagingException. - An
UnsupportedEncodingException may be included
in the exception chain if the charset
conversion fails.

setSentDate

Set the RFC 822 "Date" header field. This is the date on which the
creator of the message indicates that the message is complete
and ready for delivery. If the date parameter is
null, the existing "Date" field is removed.

getSize

Return the size of the content of this message in bytes.
Return -1 if the size cannot be determined.

Note that this number may not be an exact measure of the
content size and may or may not account for any transfer
encoding of the content.

This implementation returns the size of the content
array (if not null), or, if contentStream is not
null, and the available method returns a positive
number, it returns that number as the size. Otherwise, it returns
-1.

getContentType

Returns the value of the RFC 822 "Content-Type" header field.
This represents the content-type of the content of this
message. This value must not be null. If this field is
unavailable, "text/plain" should be returned.

This implementation uses the getHeader method
to obtain the requisite header field.

setDescription

Set the "Content-Description" header field for this Message.
If the description parameter is null, then any
existing "Content-Description" fields are removed.

If the description contains non US-ASCII characters, it will
be encoded using the platform's default charset. If the
description contains only US-ASCII characters, no encoding
is done and it is used as-is.

Note that if the charset encoding process fails, a
MessagingException is thrown, and an UnsupportedEncodingException
is included in the chain of nested exceptions within the
MessagingException.

getContentLanguage

Get the languages specified in the "Content-Language" header
field of this message. The Content-Language header is defined by
RFC 1766. Returns null if this field is unavailable
or its value is absent.

This implementation uses the getHeader method
to obtain the requisite header field.

getFileName

Returns the value of the "filename" parameter from the
"Content-Disposition" header field of this message. If it's
not available, returns the value of the "name" parameter from
the "Content-Type" header field of this BodyPart.
Returns null if both are absent.

If the mail.mime.encodefilename System property
is set to true, the MimeUtility.decodeText method will be used to decode the
filename. While such encoding is not supported by the MIME
spec, many mailers use this technique to support non-ASCII
characters in filenames. The default value of this property
is false.

setFileName

Sets the "filename" parameter of the "Content-Disposition"
header field of this message.

If the mail.mime.encodefilename System property
is set to true, the MimeUtility.encodeText method will be used to encode the
filename. While such encoding is not supported by the MIME
spec, many mailers use this technique to support non-ASCII
characters in filenames. The default value of this property
is false.

getContentStream

Produce the raw bytes of the content. This method is used during
parsing, to create a DataHandler object for the content. Subclasses
that can provide a separate input stream for just the message
content might want to override this method.

This implementation returns a SharedInputStream, if
contentStream is not null. Otherwise, it
returns a ByteArrayInputStream constructed
out of the content byte array.

getRawInputStream

Return an InputStream to the raw data with any Content-Transfer-Encoding
intact. This method is useful if the "Content-Transfer-Encoding"
header is incorrect or corrupt, which would prevent the
getInputStream method or getContent method
from returning the correct data. In such a case the application may
use this method and attempt to decode the raw data itself.

getDataHandler

The implementation provided here works as follows. Note the use of
the getContentStream method to
generate the byte stream for the content. Also note that
any transfer-decoding is done automatically within this method.

getContent

Return the content as a Java object. The type of this
object is dependent on the content itself. For
example, the native format of a "text/plain" content
is usually a String object. The native format for a "multipart"
message is always a Multipart subclass. For content types that are
unknown to the DataHandler system, an input stream is returned
as the content.

This implementation obtains the content from the DataHandler,
that is, it invokes getDataHandler().getContent().
If the content is a Multipart or Message object and was created by
parsing a stream, the object is cached and returned in subsequent
calls so that modifications to the content will not be lost.

setContent

The content is wrapped in a DataHandler object. Note that a
DataContentHandler class for the specified type should be
available to the JavaMail implementation for this to work right.
i.e., to do setContent(foobar, "application/x-foobar"),
a DataContentHandler for "application/x-foobar" should be installed.
Refer to the Java Activation Framework for more information.

setText

Convenience method that sets the given String as this
part's content, with a MIME type of "text/plain". If the
string contains non US-ASCII characters. it will be encoded
using the platform's default charset. The charset is also
used to set the "charset" parameter.

Note that there may be a performance penalty if
text is large, since this method may have
to scan all the characters to determine what charset to
use.

If the charset is already known, use the
setText method that takes the charset parameter.

setText

Convenience method that sets the given String as this part's
content, with a MIME type of "text/plain" and the specified
charset. The given Unicode string will be charset-encoded
using the specified charset. The charset is also used to set
the "charset" parameter.

setText

Convenience method that sets the given String as this part's
content, with a primary MIME type of "text" and the specified
MIME subtype. The given Unicode string will be charset-encoded
using the specified charset. The charset is also used to set
the "charset" parameter.

reply

Get a new Message suitable for a reply to this message.
The new Message will have its attributes and headers
set up appropriately. Note that this new message object
will be empty, i.e., it will not have a "content".
These will have to be suitably filled in by the client.

If replyToAll is set, the new Message will be addressed
to all recipients of this message. Otherwise, the reply will be
addressed to only the sender of this message (using the value
of the getReplyTo method).

The "Subject" field is filled in with the original subject
prefixed with "Re:" (unless it already starts with "Re:").
The "In-Reply-To" header is set in the new message if this
message has a "Message-Id" header. The ANSWERED
flag is set in this message.
The current implementation also sets the "References" header
in the new message to include the contents of the "References"
header (or, if missing, the "In-Reply-To" header) in this message,
plus the contents of the "Message-Id" header of this message,
as described in RFC 2822.

writeTo

Note that, depending on how the messag was constructed, it may
use a variety of line termination conventions. Generally the
output should be sent through an appropriate FilterOutputStream
that converts the line terminators to the desired form, either
CRLF for MIME compatibility and for use in Internet protocols,
or the local platform's line terminator for storage in a local
text file.

This implementation calls the writeTo(OutputStream,
String[]) method with a null ignore list.

writeTo

Output the message as an RFC 822 format stream, without
specified headers. If the saved flag is not set,
the saveChanges method is called.
If the modified flag is not
set and the content array is not null, the
content array is written directly, after
writing the appropriate message headers.

setHeader

Set the value for this header_name. Replaces all existing
header values with this new value. Note that RFC 822 headers
must contain only US-ASCII characters, so a header that
contains non US-ASCII characters must have been encoded by the
caller as per the rules of RFC 2047.

addHeader

Add this value to the existing values for this header_name.
Note that RFC 822 headers must contain only US-ASCII
characters, so a header that contains non US-ASCII characters
must have been encoded as per the rules of RFC 2047.

saveChanges

Updates the appropriate header fields of this message to be
consistent with the message's contents. If this message is
contained in a Folder, any changes made to this message are
committed to the containing folder.

If any part of a message's headers or contents are changed,
saveChanges must be called to ensure that those
changes are permanent. Otherwise, any such modifications may or
may not be saved, depending on the folder implementation.

Messages obtained from folders opened READ_ONLY should not be
modified and saveChanges should not be called on such messages.

This method sets the modified flag to true, the
save flag to true, and then calls the
updateHeaders method.

updateHeaders

Called by the saveChanges method to actually
update the MIME headers. The implementation here sets the
Content-Transfer-Encoding header (if needed
and not already set), the MIME-Version header
and the Message-ID header. Also, if the content
of this message is a MimeMultipart, it's
updateHeaders method is called.

Throws:

IllegalWriteException - if the underlying
implementation does not support modification

IllegalStateException - if this message is
obtained from a READ_ONLY folder.

MessagingException

createInternetHeaders

Create and return an InternetHeaders object that loads the
headers from the given InputStream. Subclasses can override
this method to return a subclass of InternetHeaders, if
necessary. This implementation simply constructs and returns
an InternetHeaders object.

Parameters:

is - the InputStream to read the headers from

Throws:

MessagingException

Since:

JavaMail 1.2

createMimeMessage

Create and return a MimeMessage object. The reply method
uses this method to create the MimeMessage object that it
will return. Subclasses can override this method to return
a subclass of MimeMessage. This implementation simply constructs
and returns a MimeMessage object using the supplied Session.